July 2014 Moms

Go to court or pay the fine?

jnnfrrose6jnnfrrose6 member
edited August 2014 in July 2014 Moms
Some may remember I had a fender bender in May. Essentially, I was changing lanes, checked my blindspot and waited for the car there to move ahead before going over. Another car came from I still don't know where and I side-swiped him while merging over. So, accident is my fault. I've got my court date for it tomorrow at 1pm. Or I can pay the fine of $265, which while it isn't a drop in the bucket, is something we can certainly cover.

So what do you ladies think? I'm on maternity leave, but do I want to deal with going to court with my 6 week old? Is it true that if you show up, you'll at least get the fine lowered, if not have the whole thing dismissed? Or should I just pay the fine and not deal with whatever possible headache may come from dealing with it all?

Go to court or pay the fine? 85 votes

Suck it up and go to court.
51% 44 votes
Suck it up and pay the fine.
44% 38 votes
SS-Because there's always at least one.
3% 3 votes

Re: Go to court or pay the fine?

  • DH was in an accident a few years ago. He went to court and they lowered his fines substantially. This was also right after DD was born, she was like 4 weeks old. We left her with my mom and the whole thing took about an hour. Since they went in alphabetical order and were down towards the end. It saved us a lot of money.
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  • tourqeyes said:
    Well, I originally voted to just pay it but since other people are saying they may lower the costs, I would show up. And I'd definitely bring my baby to try and get some sympathy out of it.
    That was my thinking to begin with, but figured I'd put it out there to see if it made sense to anyone else.  My mother offered to come along with me when I mentioned to her that I had to go (before I figured out I had the option to just pay the fine), so I am going to go in tomorrow now that others have confirmed they had their fines lowered.  I'm also just curious about the whole process anyways.  Hopefully I will get some new baby sympathy.
  • I had to go to court for a traffic ticket when DD was 6 weeks old.  It wasn't terrible and definitely worth it.

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  • I went to court one time for a speeding ticket in college and got the fine reduced and points reduced just do showing up - but today with a 5 week old baby you couldn't pay me $265 to deal with court! But I'm also a first time mom who is still trying to get the hang of breastfeeding and just going to church right now totally overwhelms me- so if you've got this mom thing down then go for it it'll probably save you some money!
  • Well I went and still had to pay the whole fine.  I must have done something wrong because I wasn't even given the chance to try and have it lowered.  Total waste of time except that it settled my curiosity on the process.  My curiosity wasn't worth $265 however.  At least my mom was there with me so I had some company.
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